A stitch in time

Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday in Lyme Regis she begins to hear things that aren't there -- a swing creaking, a dog barking -- and when their elderly landlady shows her a Victorian sampler, Maria feels a strange connection with the ten-year-old, Harriet, who stitched it. But what happened to Harriet? Why did her sister Susan finish the sampler? As Maria becomes more lost in Harriet's world, she's convinced that something tragic occurred!